Dear Phebe: The Dickinson Sisters Go West

by Judy Wells

Poetry/California History For Berkeley poet Judy Wells, a family story hinted that she might be related to the great American poet Emily Dickinson. She set out to learn something about her father’s Massachusetts’ Dickinson ancestors and discovered a treasure trove of family letters written back and forth across an expanding nation. As poet Lucille Lang Day puts “ ‘Go West, young man,’ is the famous command, but many young women also heeded this advice. Among them were Judy Wells’ great-grandmother Phebe Marsh Dickinson and her two sisters, distant cousins of Emily Dickinson, who came to California from Massachusetts in the late 19th century. In "Dear The Dickinson Sisters Go West," Wells chronicles their stories in poetry and prose.” "Dear Phebe" is neither traditional autobiography nor strict genealogy. In the hands of a poet as deft, humorous, and self-reflective as Judy Wells, letters and historical facts are turned into poems, and anecdotes become grist for the mill. As historian Lauren Coodley “This book is a wholly new form, fusing history and poetry, inspiring both disciplines.” And author Bridget Connelly “I loved every twist and turn of this mind-tripping story and laughed with glee when the author ends up returning her great-grandmother Phebe's 100-year-overdue book to the San Francisco Public Library.” Author Naomi Lowinsky describes "Dear Phebe" “Wells talks to her ancestors, and her ancestors talk back to her in a compelling narrative, driven by the many surprising points of view she inhabits. Her poetic embroidery needle loops back and forth across the generations, warns her ancestors of their fates, brings them the terrible news of the 2016 election. Her needle loops across the continent between the three Dickinson sisters in California

178 pages, Perfect Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Dave Holt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Judy Wells’s Dickinson ancestors, “three adventurous sisters, Phebe, Delia and Abbie,” migrated from Northfield, Massachusetts, New England, west to California in the 1860’s. Judy’s roots and raising are Catholic but these women were Protestant from her father’s paternal ancestry. Her dad Melvin, a Republican, married Irene, an Irish Catholic Democrat, and he “never went to his mother’s Congregational Church,” a church that traces its origins to the Puritans, not separatists from the Anglican Church like the Pilgrims. Judy imagines her great-grandmother Phebe saying, “I’m proud of being a Protestant, even a Puritan if you want to call me that.” (p. 38) But in the 20th century Wells family, the Catholic Church dominated their Christian education.
Phebe is a distant cousin and contemporary of famous poet, Emily Dickinson. She and the family, including the other Dickinson sisters, didn’t know or socialize with their cousin “of different social classes,” who moved in other circles, though some say the reclusive poet rarely ventured out of the house. Emily’s absence from the family history however does not lessen the impact or the fascination of this important story, “Dear Phebe,” and you will not be disappointed by it.
Among other moving and poignant poems is the story of sister Abbie’s life. She died in 1866 just after her son was born, “You’ll say you hate to leave your husband and baby … though I hope your soul climbed heavenward into the mansion above you so believed in.” (“Dear Abbie Tabby,” p. 78)
Judy’s cousin Webb Johnson, of central importance to the telling of this story, transcribed the letters sent to Phebe, their great grandmother (xi). They were found in a steamer trunk “unearthed” from the Walnut Creek family home where Phebe had settled in 1865. Cousin Webb had already, in 1947, witnessed the grisly unearthing of the family graves buried in the old pioneer Orris Fales Cemetery, “Phebe’s Combs (p. 115).” The cemetery was removed to make way for a Walnut Creek housing development, Arlene Gardens, now million dollar homes.